2.8.16

#621 If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.... 'Stand for Peace'

I was reading an article the other day in the Time Magazine and wanted
to share the below with you. It is basically what we all are thinking when it
comes to ‘Standing for Peace’.

“The moment someone punches you in the face might seem like a strange
time to figure out your philosophy. But in fact, being threatened or hurt is an
opportunity to re-examine what you are made of”. As the Paris attacks
reinforced, we face a foe who has no doubt about what they believe, or how
committed they are to that belief. ISIS is a fanatically devoted cult. To
counter such a challenge with pusillanimity is to court disaster. It is urgent
for the Western world to ask itself anew—what do we believe? Why except this behavior.

Confronting the dangerous ideological foes of the past—Soviet communism
or Nazism—the West was clear and firm in its counter-narrative. We have to be
just as clear today. We ask Americans, Australian’s, Europeans and so on to
fight and die for the ideals of this nation, and one of the ways we honour that
sacrifice is to clarify for ourselves and for the world what those ideals are.
An unarmed side loses even in a battle of ideas. Primary among the beliefs that
are a pillar of our Western monotheistic heritage is that every human being is
in the image of God. Our declaration of Independence secularized this into
every individual having the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. You need not believe in God to agree that the first ideal for which
we fight is the dignity and worth of every individual, regardless of the
envelope of life circumstances that surround them. The second ideal is freedom.
Freedom means more than “you don’t get to tell me what to do.” Real freedom
presupposes a society that both removes obstacles and provides avenues to human
flourishing. A group that dictates religion, dress, intellectual inquiry and
artistic expression is not only violating freedom in a negative sense—”you may
not do this”—but in a positive sense—”I will not provide ways for you to
educate yourself in this field.” Freedom is not only the right to close your
door, but the chance to open your business or write your book, or blog in this
case.

The third ideal is the solidarity of free people. The spontaneous
declarations of unity with France express the sense we have of being in this
together. Not because we were both attacked, but because we stand for the same
things. The solidarity of freedom will ultimately prove more robust than the
uniformity of servitude. Dignity, liberty and the alliance of those who choose
their lives—these are the underlying ideals with which we confront the enemies
of civilization.

Rev. Martin Luther King said: “If a man has not discovered something
that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” In a struggle against evil, we have
to cherish the sacrifices made for the ideals of goodness. We draw on the roots
of our traditions for the fruits of our freedoms—the dignity of people, the
solidarity of the free, the hope that one day the whole world will come to see
those blessings not as a gift, but as a universal human right”.

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